We consider a mobile ad hoc network setting where Bluetooth enabled mobile devices communicate directly with other devices as they meet opportunistically. We design and implement a novel mobile social networking middleware named MobiClique. MobiClique forms and exploits ad hoc social networks to disseminate content using a store-carry-forward technique. Our approach distinguishes itself from other mobile social software by removing the need for a central server to conduct exchanges, by leveraging existing social networks to bootstrap the system, and by taking advantage of the social network overlay to disseminate content. We also propose an open API to encourage third-party application development. We discuss the system architecture and three example applications. We show experimentally that MobiClique successfully builds and maintains an ad hoc social network leveraging contact opportunities between friends and people sharing interest(s) for content exchanges. Our experience also provides insight into some of the key challenges and short-comings that researchers face when designing and deploying similar systems.

/pdf/mobiclique-middleware-for-mobile-social-networking-371juum0wi.pdf

MobiClique: middleware for mobile social networking

The capacity to gather and timely deliver to the service level any relevant information that can characterize the service-provisioning environment, such as computing resources/capabilities, physical device location, user preferences, and time constraints, usually defined as context-awareness, is widely recognized as a core function for the development of modern ubiquitous and mobile systems. Much work has been done to enable context-awareness and to ease the diffusion of context-aware services; at the same time, several middleware solutions have been designed to transparently implement context management and provisioning in the mobile system. However, to the best of our knowledge, an in-depth analysis of the context data distribution, namely, the function in charge of distributing context data to interested entities, is still missing. Starting from the core assumption that only effective and efficient context data distribution can pave the way to the deployment of truly context-aware services, this article aims at putting together current research efforts to derive an original and holistic view of the existing literature. We present a unified architectural model and a new taxonomy for context data distribution by considering and comparing a large number of solutions. Finally, based on our analysis, we draw some of the research challenges still unsolved and identify some possible directions for future work.

/pdf/a-survey-of-context-data-distribution-for-mobile-ubiquitous-5bopu05rxl.pdf

A survey of context data distribution for mobile ubiquitous systems

The mobile social network (MSN) combines techniques in social science and wireless communications for mobile networking The MSN can be considered as a system which provides a variety of data delivery services involving the social relationship among mobile users This paper presents a comprehensive survey on the MSN specifically from the perspectives of applications, network architectures, and protocol design issues First, major applications of the MSN are reviewed Next, different architectures of the MSN are presented Each of these different architectures supports different data delivery scenarios The unique characteristics of social relationship in MSN give rise to different protocol design issues These research issues (eg, community detection, mobility, content distribution, content sharing protocols, and privacy) and the related approaches to address data delivery in the MSN are described At the end, several important research directions are outlined

Applications, Architectures, and Protocol Design Issues for Mobile Social Networks: A Survey

Mobile social networks (MSNs) are mobile communication systems focusing not only on the behaviour but also on the social needs of the users. In a broader view all mobile systems used by people in their everyday lives can be characterized as MSNs, since all interactions taking place follow social rather than random patterns. Whether the deployed communication system takes into account the social background of the underlying network, depends on its form and capabilities. This article presents a review of the relevant work published in MSNs. Initially the basic architectures and components are summarized. Then the basic social properties of the network, as found in the key literature, are extensively examined. These properties are the main source of inspiration for new MSN protocols and applications, especially for non centralized systems. Finally the key research problems and the open issues in the area are presented, including future applications and privacy concerns.

Mobile Social Networks: Architectures, Social Properties, and Key Research Challenges

A great number of people spend one or more hours each day driving between home and the office. These daily roadway commutes are highly predictable and regular, and provide a great opportunity to form virtual mobile communities. However, even though these commuters are already physically present in the same location, they are limited in their ability to communicate with each other. This paper presents a framework for building such communities, which we call Vehicular Social Networks (VSNs), to facilitate better communication between commuters driving on roadways. As a proof of concept, we present the design of RoadSpeak, a VSN-based system which allows drivers to automatically join VSNs along popular roadways, and communicate with each other by means of voice chat messages.

http://discolab.rutgers.edu/socialnet/roadspeak/papers/socialnets08.pdf

RoadSpeak: enabling voice chat on roadways using vehicular social networks

Recently, we started to experience a shift from physical communities to virtual communities, which leads to missed social opportunities in our daily routine. For instance, we are not aware of neighbors with common interests or nearby events. Mobile social computing applications (MSCAs) promise to improve social connectivity in physical communities by leveraging information about people, social relationships, and places. This article presents MobiSoC, a middleware that enables MSCA development and provides a common platform for capturing, managing, and sharing the social state of physical communities. Additionally, it incorporates algorithms that discover previously unknown emergent geo-social patterns to augment this state. To demonstrate MobiSoC's feasibility, we implemented and tested on smart phones two MSCAs for location-based mobile social matching and place-based ad hoc social collaboration. Experimental results showed that MobiSoC can provide good response time for 1,000 users. We also demonstrated that an adaptive localization scheme and carefully chosen cryptographic methods can significantly reduce the resource consumption associated with the location engine and security on smart phones. A user study of the mobile social matching application proved that geo-social patterns can double the quality of social matches and that people are willing to share their location with MobiSoC in order to benefit from MSCAs.

/pdf/mobisoc-a-middleware-for-mobile-social-computing-3911nvkwsh.pdf

MobiSoC: a middleware for mobile social computing applications

Recently, we started to experience a shift from physical communities to virtual communities, which leads to missed social opportunities in our daily routine. For instance, we are not aware of neighbors with common interests or nearby events. Mobile social computing applications (MSCAs) promise to improve social connectivity in physical communities by leveraging information about people, social relationships, and places. This paper presents MobiSoC, a middleware that enables MSCAs development and provides a common platform for capturing, managing, and sharing the social state of physical communities. Additionally, it incorporates algorithms that discover previously unknown emergent geosocial patterns to augment this state. To demonstrate Mo-biSoC's feasibility, we implemented and tested on smart phones two MSCAs for location-based mobile social matching and place-based ad hoc social collaboration.

/pdf/the-mobisoc-middleware-for-mobile-social-computing-2ids0rvhp0.pdf

The MobiSoC middleware for mobile social computing: challenges, design, and early experiences

Mobile locatable devices can help identify previously unknown ad hoc or semi-permanent groups of people and their meeting places. Newly identified groups or places can be recommended to people to enhance their geo-social experience, while respecting privacy constraints. For instance, new students can learn about popular hangouts on campus or faculty members can learn about groups of students routinely having research discussions. This paper presents a clustering algorithm based on user copresence that identifies such groups and places even when group members participate to only a certain fraction of meetings. Simulation results demonstrate that 90 96% of group members can be identified with negligible false positives when the user meeting attendance is at least 50%. Experimental results using one-month of mobility traces collected from smart phones running Intel's PlaceLab location engine successfully identified all groups that met regularly during that period. Additionally, the group places were identified with good accuracy.

/pdf/automatic-identification-of-informal-social-groups-and-4iujmsuhlx.pdf

Automatic identification of informal social groups and places for geo-social recommendations

APPROXIMATION ALGORITHMS FOR VARIANTS OF THE TRAVELING SALESMAN PROBLEM

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Ankur Gupta

Papers

MobiSoC: a middleware for mobile social computing applications

The MobiSoC middleware for mobile social computing: challenges, design, and early experiences

Automatic identification of informal social groups and places for geo-social recommendations

Approximation algorithms for variants of the traveling salesman problem